# What is Speedwave

Speedwave is a free, open-source (Apache 2.0) software development life cycle (SDLC) platform for any software development team. It supports work across the whole development life cycle: planning, turning requirements into user stories, building, AI-assisted code review, automated browser testing, connecting to delivery systems, and writing documentation. The AI assists at each step, and a person stays accountable for every decision it produces.

Claude Code is the foundation Speedwave builds on ([how the two differ](/docs/understand/speedwave-vs-claude-code/)), but that does not lock you to Anthropic for the model. Each project picks its own provider: Anthropic, a local model server, or OpenRouter. With a local server you can keep your code and prompts on your own machine when your work requires it. Read [how Speedwave works](/docs/understand/how-it-works/) for the full picture of what runs where.

Speedwave ships as one installable application, with the container runtime bundled inside. It has two front-ends over one shared runtime: a Desktop chat app for anyone on the team, including [people who do not write code](/docs/understand/who-its-for/), and a terminal CLI for developers who want to launch from a terminal. Both drive the same container orchestration, so a project behaves the same way from either one. See [Install Speedwave](/docs/get-started/install/) to set it up on macOS or Windows.
**Security first:** Claude runs in a container that holds zero tokens and zero credentials and cannot reach any service directly. Each service is reached through a separate isolated worker that mounts only that service's credentials, so the model never sees them. That split between the model and its credentials is why regulated sectors, especially banking, financial services, and insurance, pick Speedwave. Read more in [Security](/docs/security/).

## Where to go next

[Understand](/docs/understand/how-it-works/)
  [Security](/docs/security/)
  [Features](/docs/features/)
  [Get started](/docs/get-started/install/)